1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of specialized support structures in general, and in particular to structures commonly referred to as clothes trees.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,185,642; 1,973,521; 1,069,643; 3,249,233; and 2,126,513, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse clothes tree constructions.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical clothes tree support structure that has expandable and contractible support elements that can be selectively deployed to support individual articles of clothing and retracted to their collapsed mode when not in use.
As most people who employ clothes trees are all too well aware, virtually all clothes trees have fixed length rigidly mounted support elements that project outwardly from a vertical support post and these support arms not only take up useful storage space, but also have a tendency to provide unnecessary obstructions for the user at various other times.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need for a new and improved type of expandable clothes support structure whose horizontal support elements are selectively deployable for use and normally retracted otherwise, and the provision of such a construction is a stated objective of the present invention.
Briefly stated, the expandable clothes support structure that forms the basis of the present invention comprises in general, a base unit, a vertical support unit extending upwardly from the base unit, and a plurality of movable support units provided on the vertical support unit and adapted to be selectively extended and retracted in a pivoted and telescoping fashion relative to the vertical support unit.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, the base unit comprises a weighted base member provided with an upwardly projecting hollow collar element that is dimensioned to receive the lower portion of the vertical support unit.
The vertical support unit comprises in general, a main vertical support post member having a lower end dimensioned to be received in the collar element of the base member and having an upper end provided with an adapter post element dimensioned to be received in a complementary recess formed in the lower end of an auxiliary vertical support post extension member.
In addition, both the main support post member and the auxiliary support post extension member are provided with a plurality of movable support units. Each of the movable support units includes a main support arm member pivotally attached to the vertical support post member and an extension arm element telescopically received within the main support arm member.